Happy Birthday, Johnny!

Today is John's birthday and I'm so happy to celebrate him. He's blossomed (is there a non-frilly word for that?) this year as he's taken on new challenges in his career. He's become a speaker/presenter, even traveling internationally to speak on Amber and Smalltalk (computer language/frameworks). He's published open source code that is gaining him attention in elite circles. He's started tweeting. He's starting a new, exciting job in a couple of weeks that shows that he's valued professionally, too. He's working with the youth of our ward and going above and beyond to serve and mentor them. We love him as our dad and husband, and our team captain. 

He's always willing to dress up on Halloween- this was in 2003.

He's Charlie's best friend

He's a great uncle and friend to children

He's a fun, helpful brother

He's a kid at heart

We love you, Johnny! Happy birthday!

Welcome, Baby Jude

Another little cousin was born for George and Charlie to play with! Kate and Jeff (John's sister and her husband), welcomed Baby Jude four weeks early! Luckily, he was a big preemie and healthy. He's so sweet and tiny! He was born February 23 and weighed 6 lbs 8 oz.

Welcome, Baby Mark

Catherine and Richard welcomed their little boy, Mark Richard, on February 13th. He was 8 lbs 2 oz. I'm dying that I can't fly over to Abu Dhabi and help them and snuggle that baby!! I'm grateful that my mom went over to help. The transition from 1 to 2 kids is rough!

He knows me

I was inspired by my friend, Kim, and her powerful post about answered prayers. You should read it if you get a moment. 

I feel so very blessed in my life.
Truly.
I should end right there.

We have clean water and food to eat; we live in a place where we are free to worship; I, as a woman, have rights protected by law; I was able to bear children; we are healthy; John is employed; we have supportive and loving families; we have a home. I could go on and on.

Yet, despite my many plentiful blessings, there are still hard days. And sometimes I feel badly that I even have hard days when I am so greatly blessed. It's so easy to trivialize my hardships when I compare them to someone else's challenges that are more devastating.

But I'm slowly realizing that acknowledging the hard times doesn't make me less grateful for my blessings.

The other day a couple of months ago, I was having a hard day. The balancing act of taking care of an infant and a preschooler seemed extra precarious that day. Charlie and George both seemed to be getting the short end of my attention. It peaked in awfulness when my independent, impulsive, 2-year-old hit me on the back of my head with a very heavy and hard toy. Fast forward two minutes and all three of us were crying, me in pain and frustration and guilt (for raising my voice with Charlie), George in fear from the ruckus we were causing, and Charlie in time-out feeling sad and frustrated and sorry.

It's so hard for me to not take things personally as a parent. There's a very thin and blurry line between recognizing I could do better in that situation and feeling like every misbehavior is an indication that I'm failing at this parenting stuff. And I seem to have a lot of those moments with a strong-willed preschooler.

The day was almost over and I loaded the kids in the car to go pick up Johnny from the TRAX station. Completely exhausted, I drove through McDonald's for dinner. Another "failure" in my mind in the day's tally.

I was tearful and sad as I waited in the car for John.  Then I received a text message from an acquaintance in my new ward (congregation).

This fellow mom was asking me if I wanted to put Charlie in swimming lessons with her little boy.

It was such a simple thing but it was profoundly moving to me. My downward spiral of feeling like Charlie is too wild (which is of course, my fault) for anyone to want to play with us was stopped. Here was another mom who wanted to be my friend and wanted her little boy to be Charlie's friend.

Since that time, she and I have become good friends and I've felt more anchored in my new neighborhood.

I truly believe that this text message is direct proof that Heavenly Father knows me and that I needed Him. I feel like Heavenly Father prompted that other mom to contact me because He knew I needed it precisely in that moment. And I'm so grateful for that.

Lily, You're a Star!

My cute and vivacious niece, Lily, decided she wanted to be in a beauty pageant. 

Her wise parents found her a "natural" pageant where the kids aren't allowed to wear makeup, or wigs, or spray tans, or any of that other crazy stuff. But there was a fun luau theme.

 There were all sorts of prizes awarded and Lily ended up walking away with three of them, including the biggest one, making her queen of the pageant! Pretty good for her first one ever! She also won the "best photo" and her picture was on the cover of the program. I will toot my own horn here and say that I took those photos. :)

The winning photo

 More than anything, it was fun to have Lily and Kerry over and play dress up!

Friends

We've had some fun get togethers this winter, only a fraction of which we actually photographed. 

John's cousin, Dan, and his wife, Sarah and their little girl Charlotte stopped by to meet Baby George. They call her Charlie, too, so I had to get a picture of the two Charlies.

 We got together with Melanie and Carolyn and their families around New Year's while Carolyn was in town. I've been friends with them since junior high! We didn't get a group picture, but I did get one of the kids on my cell phone.

 L-R Charlie and George, Melanie's little boy, Bronco, and Carolyn's little girl, Zoe. 

 While Amy was in town visiting, we got together at her parents' house on a Saturday night. It was just like the good old days of high school, except for the half dozen kids between us now! We even called Madelyn on speakerphone to include her in the fun. 

(L-R Andrea (and baby boy Buley), Amy and Kate, Susie and Phoebe,
 me and George, Suzanna and Kennedy, and Liz (and baby girl Payne). 

Another get together, this time at my house in February with Kim who was in town visiting.

L-R Andrea, Suzanna, me, George, Susie, Phoebe, Liz, Kim and Elizabeth

Charlie's first haircut

In December, I finally scheduled Charlie's first haircut. His beautiful curls took a long time to come in (he was practically bald until he was 18 months old) but once they did, they were tight ringlets. However, Charlie's lifestyle isn't really conducive to keeping long hair. He's a rough and tumble boy! Right around the time I had George, I kind of fell behind on caring for Charlie's hair and ended up having to cut out a few dreadlocks that had formed. Whoops! After that little trim, I stayed on top of the detangling and conditioning but it was still time for a trim. 

A pretty good before picture- look how long his hair is!

For his first haircut, we took him to Cookie Cutters which was worth every penny. He got to sit in a race car chair and watch a movie during the cut and then afterwards got a balloon, a sucker and to go down the in-lobby slide a few times.

He looks concerned because he's trying to concentrate on the TV, he actually loves having his head touched

Again, a little scowly but not really upset

And here's a good "after" shot of Charlie's haircut (and showing off his beatboxing skills and toolbelt accessories.)

At first, I felt like I was Delilah taking away his Sampson super power by cutting his hair. It was a little shorter than I wanted. But now that's it's grown out a little, the trademark Charlie ringlets are back.

George rolls over

It's so fun to see how my children differ. It's so easy to compare their milestones, sizes, and personalities but every once in a while something reminds me that they are just as unique as they are similar. Charlie rolled over when he was 3 months old, so I've been watching to see when it would happen for George. He has been close for several weeks. He's strong and seemed to have most of the coordination needed to do it. I think what he was lacking was the opportunity! Between a very active older brother, more time spent running errands, and lots of hardwood floor, he doesn't spend *that* much time just hanging out on the floor, especially to how much Charlie did at his age.

The other week I was over at Aunt Kate's house helping her organize in preparation for Baby Jude's arrival. George was pleasantly hanging out on the carpet beside us as we went through boxes. As we were watching him, he pulled his little legs to his chest, tipped to the side and then started to straighten out his legs. Kate and I both noticed that he was so close to rolling over and then he just did it! It was so fun to have a witness to his accomplishment. I got a little bit of it on my phone's camera, too.

Charlie-not quite 3

Here's an update on our not quite 3 year old. He's smart and fun and vivacious and sweet and challenging and high-energy and strong-willed and focused and funny. Life is never boring with Charlie around.

His talking is improving every day. He's started paying attention to conversations around him and chiming in on them, which is definitely a new phase to adjust to for mom and dad! My favorite Charlie phrases recently include:
"Over a couch! Wash a show!" (translation- over to the couch, watch a show) he requests this first thing when he gets up in the morning or from his nap
"Put down me!" (put me down)
"Hmmm" (while tapping his forehead or chin thoughtfully)
"What happened?"
"Yeah" and "uh-HUH" or sometimes, "Uh-huh, yes."
"Oh my goodness" (he got this one from me)
"Bah-roken" (broken)
"Hey, not nice" (this is exactly what we say to him if he's misbehaving and now he says it to us if we do something he doesn't like)
"Stop it!" (Lovely. Again, I know where he got this one! We're all trying to learn "Stop, please" instead.)
"Check out" (check it out- straight from Johnny)
"Watch this"
"It's Sunday!" (To Charlie, the opposite of nighttime is sun-day. Makes perfect sense to me! When he wants to get up from his nap, he points to the sun shining through the window and says "it's Sun-day!")
He's getting the hang of pronouncing his own name and it sounds like Char-ree (which an improvement on  the previous Cha-ee).

His dad, some sticks, the park and Mount Olympus- what else does a boy need?

He's picking up mannerisms that make him seem so grown-up and clever, like coughing into his little fist
or shaking his sippy cup before drinking to check if there's any milk left in it.

He's delighted with his Mater and Lightning McQueen toys from Grandma Bev and Grandma Barb.
He's discovered chocolate milk and asks for it all the time.

He loves all things dinosaurs, cars, TOOLS, Kung Fu Panda, volcanoes and waterfalls, robots, ghosts, giants, and monsters. He often wants me to pretend I'm a big monster and chase him around the house.

loves his accessories

He has surprised me by knowing lots of words to songs and singing along in nursery or in the car. Some of his latest ones are I Love to See the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald Had a Farm and If You're Happy and You Know it complete with actions.

The other night my dad was outside in the backyard playing with Charlie and Lily. It was getting dark and Grandpa was pulling them around in the wagon while they both sang Twinkle Twinkle at the top of their lungs as stars began appearing in the sky.

Charlie requests (demands?) a back tickle at bedtime and a song, usually I am a Child of God or "Charlie's song" (which is Mother, I Love You with the words changed to Charlie, I Love You) but sometimes they make him feel tenderhearted and he cries. What a sweet little soul. So I'll choose a more upbeat, playful song which seems to help.

He still hasn't tried to climb out of his crib, though I know he's tall and strong enough to do it. I'm grateful he's still willing to sleep in the crib, I think it makes everyone's lives a little easier for the time being. He can get out of the pack and play in a hot second, so naps and sleeping places other than at home are non-existent. He now practices headstands in his crib when he's going to sleep and when he wakes up- I know he's awake when I hear the thump... thump... thump... over and over again.

He loves building forts with blankets and hiding in them with flashlights. Lately, he wants us to all "go a-seep a-gevver" (translation: go to sleep together) in the fort. John and Charlie and I (and sometimes George) will lie down on a big pillow under his semi-permanent fort in his room and Charlie covers us all up with one blanket.

Charlie created this road all on his own

He's working on doing chores- putting his dishes in the sink, brushing teeth, being still for diaper changes, getting dressed, putting his boots and coat away.

Still a very sensitive and reluctant eater of new foods. We've been trying my friend's kiss it, lick it, bite it method with some success (lots of choosing to "kiss"the new food and sometimes we only can get him to smell it.)

Likes to perform songs on his musical instruments, clap for himself while saying "Bravo!" then bows and says, "Thank you, thank you!"

painting a picture

more painting

playing at the park

Charlie and I made cupcakes together for the first time and he was such a great little helper!